What are you Reading now ..... other than comics ? 7 7

[pickycollector]

"To the top of Denali" by Bill Sherwonit and "Into thin air" by Jon Krakauer.

 

[namisgr]

Krakauer's story is a gripping and tragic page-turner.

 

My son bought me HG Wells' 'A Short History of the World', which has an interesting 1922 take on the nature of things.

[lookwhoitis]

Salammbo

 

Flaubert's 1862 novel was the most violent & sadistic fiction I've ever read. More than Blood Meridian or American Psycho. Or any film.

 

 

Got Blood Meridian on my read pile and hope to start it soon. It was hard to find an affordable copy. Good luck finding a 1st/1st. They go for mucho coin. I ended up buying the Modern Library HC.

[lookwhoitis]

Finished David Copperfield last year, now reading Oliver Twist. Wanted to get into the classics.

 

I've read neither. I've been a poor Dickens reader. I've been thinking about him forever. Recently something John Ruskin wrote got me thinking about Hard Times. I'm envious of your book choice. I say read all of his books in chronological order by publication date. I doubt you'll regret a page of it & your bookshelf will thank you for it the rest of your days.

 

+1 I have a degree in English Lit and have never read a Dickens book cover to cover. It's sad and dumb on my part. I just can't get off George R.R. Martin right now. Some classics maybe in a couple of months.

 

to both of ye.

[hbo_boxingfan]

reading 2 books right now. Ready player one by ernest cline and the bible.

[lookwhoitis]

GRRM will start in about 4 - 5 weeks.

 

I'm thinking about going right into King's Dark Tower series & then the Stand right after GRRM.

 

Dark Tower is my favorite series of all time. Dont forge't The Talisman and Black House and Hearts in Atlantis, as King weaves all the stories together.

 

Also, The Wind through the Keyhole, the first Dark Tower book in 8 years is dropping in February. Call it Dark Tower 4.5 It chronicles the events that take place between Wizard & Glass and Wolves of the Calla

[TupennyConan]

The Talisman was the last King I read. I think it was 1986. I recall seagulls.

[lookwhoitis]

Good news on the Dark Tower adaptation. HBO has picked up the TV part of the series.

 

http://io9.com/5853475/stephen-kings-dark-tower-is-coming-to-hbo

 

It is being developed by Ron Howard and was set to go at Universal but the project was killed when Comcast bought universal and the new suits came in. They didnt want to spend that big a budget on a genre film.

 

They also torpedoed Guillermo del Toro's planned adaptation of Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness

 

Comcast needs to go fork themselves with a baseball bat.

 

I am boycotting spending any money on Universal films as a result.

 

The Dark Tower will eventually get off the ground somewhere with at least one feature being produced then then HBO picking up the tv series where the film left off. Originally there was planned to be three feature films and tv series in between linking them together.

 

HBO has certainly shown their capacity to do a big budget multi faceted fantasy story with the A Game of Thrones adaptation, though

[delekkerste]

Finally finished "My 'Dam Life" by Sean Condon and "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova about a week ago. Now concurrently reading "How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery" by Edward Winkleman and "Jack the Ripper and the Case for Scotland Yard's Prime Suspect" by Robert House.

 

How did you like the Historian? I loved it but ended up getting bored about 2/3 into it.

 

Agreed. That book was really interesting for a while but just went on and on and on and started repeating itslef. Too bad.

 

I thought it was just my 2 yr old attention span.

 

I enjoyed it a lot, though it took a long time to finish. I think it should have been about 100 pages shorter, with about 50-75 of the remaining pages devoted towards fleshing out what I thought was a fairly rushed ending instead of dragging out the build up. Still, I thought it was a very interesting concept and well researched and well written. I'd give it a B+/A-.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pickycollector]

Krakauer's story is a gripping and tragic page-turner.

 

My son bought me HG Wells' 'A Short History of the World', which has an interesting 1922 take on the nature of things.

Me and my team got jammed three full days in a snowstorm this summer in my first attempt to climb Denali so I had a good idea how nature can be merciless sometimes.

 

[jools&jim]

 

This has been out for a while, but I just got it for Christmas:

 

 

It covers some very familiar ground, but it's well-researched, cites most of its sources, and has a good index, and so far has revealed a surprise or two to this life-long Who fan...

[chrisco37]

Nearing the end of GRRM's "Storm of Swords".

 

Are you effing kidding me!!!!!! :o :o

 

 

 

 

[chrisco37]

Oh my, I just got to Edmure's wedding in "A Storm of Swords". I have goosebumps and I am totally speechless.

 

George Martin has done it again, just when I think I am prepared for whatever he might throw at me...he blindsides me.

 

This!!!!!

[Trev]

"How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities" by John Cassidy

[Whizzer]

Outliers - The story of success by Malcolm Gladwell.

 

Book that suggests that highly successful people from various fields, from business to sport to science etc, owe more to fortunate circumstances than any innate ability or work ethic.

 

He also suggests that any reasonably intelligent person can become expert at almost anything by spending a cumulative amount of time totalling at least 10,000 hours doing it.

 

It's surprisingly compelling, but I feel that he has been quite selective with the data he presents to back up his claims.

 

Well written if a little hokey.

[letsgrumble]

He also suggests that any reasonably intelligent person can become expert at almost anything by spending a cumulative amount of time totalling at least 10,000 hours doing it.

 

I've read over 10,000 hours worth of comics in my time, but I feel none smarter about them.

 

Maybe I'm an expert in bagging and boarding. I can give some insightful commentary on CNN.

[delekkerste]

Now concurrently reading "How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery" by Edward Winkleman and "Jack the Ripper and the Case for Scotland Yard's Prime Suspect" by Robert House.

 

Finished both of the above and now I'm convinced that (a) I'm nowhere near ready to open an art gallery and (b) Jack the Ripper was almost undoubtedly a working class, lunatic madman who lived in the Whitechapel area, whether it was the author's preferred suspect or not.

 

I'm now reading "Survival Guide for Traders: How to Set Up and Organize Your Trading Business" by Bennett A. McDowell.

[TupennyConan]

Game of Thrones.

 

Plenty of thoughts at the halfway point. Here is one I'll share now ~~

 

There is a harsh emphasis on marriage in the book's warring feudal structure. There are penalties for violating the family system. Bastardy is societal death but for the Wall it appears & rapers threaten all women, only less so the married women.

 

[chrisco37]

Game of Thrones.

 

Plenty of thoughts at the halfway point. Here is one I'll share now ~~

 

There is a harsh emphasis on marriage in the book's warring feudal structure. There are penalties for violating the family system. Bastardy is societal death but for the Wall it appears & rapers threaten all women, only less so the married women.

 

You finally started! Woohoo!

 

I just started the 4th book.

[Pirate]

I'm reading book 1 of the Iron Druid chronicles. If you like Green's Nightside and/or Butcher's Dresden, then these are for you.